The police raided Andrew’s Norfolk home this morning

• Full report: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested.

The police raid follows emails released by the US Department of Justice that appeared to show the former duke sharing reports of official visits to Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Photographs of unmarked police cars and plainclothes officers at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate just after 8am were published on Thursday.

A statement from Thames Valley police said: “We have today (19/2) arrested a man in his 60s from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk. The man remains in police custody at this time.”

The arrest came as Mountbatten-Windsor celebrated his 66th birthday at home.

Police had been assessing allegations that Mountbatten-Windsor – formerly known as Prince Andrew – shared sensitive information with the billionaire child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when he was a UK trade envoy.

Oliver Wright, Thames Valley Police’s assistant chief constable, said: “Following a thorough assessment, we have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office.”

PM ‘delighted’ to fill position with ‘outstanding public servant’ – who becomes first woman to hold cabinet secretary role

• UK politics live: latest news updates

Keir Starmer has appointed Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary, the UK’s most senior civil servant.

Romeo, the first woman to hold the post in the role’s 110-year history, has been a key figure behind the scenes in multiple government departments including spells as permanent secretary at the Home Office, International Trade and the Ministry of Justice.

Exclusive: approximately 350-acre compound planned as base for multinational force, according to records reviewed by the Guardian

The Trump administration is planning to build a 5,000-person military base in Gaza, sprawling more than 350 acres, according to Board of Peace contracting records reviewed by the Guardian.

The site is envisioned as a military operating base for a future International Stabilization Force (ISF), planned as a multinational military force composed of pledged troops. The ISF is part of the newly created Board of Peace which is meant to govern Gaza. The Board of Peace is chaired by Donald Trump and led in part by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

PM argues party wants to send women back to ‘old days’, as he also urges Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to speak to authorities

• UK politics live – latest updates

Reform UK’s plans to repeal the Equality Act are “shocking” and un-British, Keir Starmer has said, warning legislation that has provided decades of protection for women would be ripped up.

In a pre-recorded interview with BBC Breakfast, the prime minister said the legislation was British at its core and represented “basic values”, before arguing Reform wanted to send women back to the “old days” when they were not treated equally.

Demand is rising at unsustainable rate and could cost £3.4bn by 2030-31, local authorities warn

Families who have children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) should be means tested for school transport, according to councils in England, who say demand is rising “at an unsustainable rate”.

Local authorities are urging the government to be “radical” in its Send reforms, which are expected imminently, warning that annual costs on home-to-school transport for children with Send could rise to £3.4bn by 2030-31, up from £2bn last year.

Yvette Cooper criticises 10-year sentence for couple arrested on around-the-world trip and held on charges of espionage

The 10-year jail sentence handed to a British couple in Iran is “totally unjustifiable”, Yvette Cooper has said.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through the country on an around-the-world motorcycle journey and detained on charges of espionage. The couple from East Sussex, who are being held in Tehran’s Evin prison, deny the allegations.

BRC survey finds finance bosses expect technology to improve productivity, with 69% pessimistic about the economy

UK retailers are planning to cut staff hours and jobs amid rising employment costs and pessimism about the economy.

Almost two-thirds (61%) of finance bosses at retail companies said they planned to reduce working hours or cut overtime, according to the latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body that represents most big retailers. More than half (55%) said they would cut head office jobs and 42% said they would reduce jobs in stores.

Exclusive: Cross-party group ‘deeply concerned’ power plant may have misled ministers and regulators over source of wood pellets

Ed Miliband is under pressure from MPs to suspend subsidies worth £2m a day paid to the owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire after court documents cast doubt on the company’s sustainability claims.

A cross-party group of 14 MPs and peers have called on the energy minister to halt the subsidies for Britain’s biggest power plant while the financial watchdog investigates the company’s claims about how it sources the millions of tonnes of wood pellets burned to generate electricity.

Ex-leader sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour over failed martial law declaration in 2024

A South Korean court has sentenced the former president Yoon Suk Yeol to life imprisonment with labour over his failed martial law declaration in December 2024, finding him guilty of leading an insurrection and making him the first elected head of state in the country’s democratic era to receive the maximum custodial sentence.

The Seoul central district court found that Yoon’s declaration of martial law on 3 December 2024 constituted insurrection, carried out with the intent to disrupt the constitutional order.

With Gorton split between Labour and Greens, division creates opportunity for Farage’s party in other side of constituency facing byelection

If you’re unsure whether you’ve crossed the border from Manchester into Tameside, the Reform posters will probably give it away. In windows, on walls, and staked on garden posts, Denton is awash with turquoise blue as the 26 February byelection looms.

Near the town centre, Ian Singleton and his wife, Irene, have one of Reform’s turquoise banners standing proudly in their front yard. Ian was born in Gorton, in Manchester, but for the best part of the last three decades, the couple have lived on the other side of the constituency, in Denton.